Fernanda & Karl - Road Trip, Day 5 -- Website by Now Interactive Solutions

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Road Trip, Day 5

Obligatory stop
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Black Hills of South Dakota, into Wyoming

So we started out today plotting how to steal ice and leech wifi. We drove in front of one of the many motels down the road from where we stayed, and I war-drove for open networks. We also looked where there might be an ice machine. I tried in front of the Holiday Inn, but couldn't really connect to their network. Just down the parking lot though we got a strong and clear open network (called "linksys") in front of a bar that wasn't even open. So I uploaded my entry for yesterday and all the pictures, checked email, plotted our route on Google Maps, and found out how to see Mt. Rushmore without paying the parking fee. Woo-hoo. Then we drove down the parking lot to the next big motel, and I just walked in like I belonged and filled our cooler at one of the ice machines. Our life of crime starts. Just like in Natural Born Killers.

We drove out to Mt. Rushmore, and following the advice I found, went past it to the scenic outlook pullout, parked there, and walked back to the monument. Did Rushmore, walked the trail, yadda, yadda. On the way back to the car we saw a mountain goat up on this impossible rock. Needed binoculars to see it was a goat, and not just some suspicious-looking white thing. When we drove on, we discovered that where we had parked was not the scenic outlook, but some administrative parking, the scenic outlook was a little further down the road. Oops.

So we drove on through the Black Hills, vaguely in the direction of the Crazy Horse Monument, but it's not near done, and they wanted $25 entry, and you can see the thing right from the entrance. We passed, drove on down to Custer, where we bought food and drink in a supermarket, and drove on to have a picnic. Naturally there was then an immediate shortage of picnic areas on our immediate route. But it was a beautiful route. Eventually in desperation we picnicked on some rocks in the parking area of some fishing spot -- but it was very nice. It was all very nice. The rain was being held back by the mountains, the sun kept coming out, and the sky kept to blue.

After lunch Fernanda got sleepy, so I took over driving while she took a nap. What a beautiful drive! Too bad Fernanda slept through some of it. We drove through Hill City, also near Mt. Rushmore and the place we should have come yesterday. Maybe the motels would've been just as expensive, but the town was much, much nicer than crappy Keystone. But all good things must come to an end, so around 3 we came to the end of the Black Hills and back to the interstate, after a quick drive through Deadwood. Off to Wyoming and maybe dip into Montana to get to Yellowstone. Only 400 something miles...

We resolved to drive through to the end of Wyoming just before Montana, find a motel, and then drive to Yellowstone the next day, because it was raining, and who wants to camp in Yellowstone in the rain? Who wants to camp, but that's another story. So, rain. It rained on the drive, which gets really tiring really fast. Wyoming is really pretty too, with these red cliff hills with green grass and trees growing on them. The skies really opened up, big-sky like, when they weren't opening up in rain. We broke mile 2000 today.

So around 6 we decided to stop for the night in Buffalo, about 40 miles from Montana. From motel to motel, checking rates -- they really need to make this more efficient. I want to be able to see all motels and all rates, current and accurate, in one convenient location. We finally went in this place with lots of character. Well, one character anyway, the owner, who is a relocatee from Coney Island, and he'll talk your ear off he's so full of tips and advice. Too overwhelming for us road-weary travelers, who just want to stare our thousand-mile stares. The place claims free wifi, but it wasn't working, and between tips and maps and places we had to go, we just fled, and are now at a Taco Johns, because they are supposed to have free wifi, only it wasn't working, so we're leaching off the realtor next door. We feel better now with food in us. We were getting ready to despair. We still might, if Yellowstone is really as bad RV traffic-wise as we've been told...

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Previous Entries

:-(
06/19/21

Açores
08/29/18

Our New Bathroom Saga
11/17/16

Europe 2015
03/16/15

The Berkshires
10/18/14

Road Trip South
03/23/13

Greece!
07/26/12

Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09

Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07